Elderberry wine

[ffemt128]

Stevo,
I consider bitterness differently from acidity. How old is the wine? Bitterness could be from the wine being young; I've had bitter fruit wines mellow out with age, so you probably should do nothing until this wine has bulk aged for a while. There is a fining agent called Bentolact which is supposed to help with bitterness, I have never tried it.

Doug,
We would love to see some pictures!

Robert

I'll see what I can do over the next few days. I want to transfer the main batch this week in the evenings.

Julie, I'm with you. The batch I made that won the gold medal was at .78% which is where I generally shoot for. I went with .75 pre fermentation and will adjust as needed post.

 

[ffemt128]

Transferred the primary Elderberry over to glass after work. I ended up with 21 gallons of wine from 126 lbs of berries. 6 lbs per gallon. Has good elderberry aromas.

Here's a pic..

The 4 carboy on the right and the single gallon in front are the primary batch. The 6 gallon and 1 1/2 gallons to the left are the seconds batch.

 

[ffemt128]

I need to check the amount of sediment that has dropped in these over the past 3 weeks. My general schedule is to rack off heavy lees about 2-3 weeks after hitting glass then regular 30-60 day rackings from there.

 

[ffemt128]

Racked the Elderberry off the heavy lees after initial transfer to glass. Lots of sediment dropped out as was anticipated. Full 6 gallon carboy and a 1/2 gallon jug from the 2nds batch. Primary batch was 1-6 and 3-5 gallon carboys being filled to the bottom of the neck. Kmeta was added now the waiting game begins. Next racking in approx. 60 days.

 

[user 32114]

I aint any to bright but I love my elderberry wine, on your apple, pear elderberry and a lot of other country wines, as I've never made any thing using grapes I like to use lite amounts of sergeants yellow crabapples, I feel that I get far better flavors, for instance to make say a starter I make a 6 an 1/2 gallon carboy so time I get to a 5 gallon finish wine , I use a blend of 20 lbs granny smith apples, 20 lbs of yellow dellisous apples? cant spell 40 lbs pears and 3 lbs of sergeants yellow crab apples, I freeze everything, then put in my ferment barrel mix with drill and go from there, the point being I use crab apples instead in most any wine I want a full finish with, just my 2 cents, you did say anybody,
richard::

Hi Doug,

My 2015 elderberry is done fermenting and aging in the carboy. I will be following this thread.

My recipe differs from yours in a number of ways, but one I want to ask you about is the acid. I feel as if I've been making better wine since I stopped using acid blend (for anything except apple), and switched to only citric, tartaric, or some combination of the two. This year's elderberry I made with 80% tartaric and 20% citric.

I welcome thoughts from you or anyone on the acid used in elderberry wine.

Robert

 

[ffemt128]

Took a look at the elderberry wine the other day. Primary batch is looking pretty clear at this point, the secondary batch is still looking a bit cloudy. I need to check my records but I think racking may be in order the end of this month.

 

[ffemt128]

I'm going to shoot for trying to get this racked off today at lunch time. Last racking was the beginning of February and it's looking very clear at this point. Need to rack, kmeta and sorbate then let age a few more months. I can't wait to be able to say I have 100+ bottles of Elderberry on the rack. It's one of my favorite wines.

 

[wineforfun]

I don't have anywhere near 100 bottles of it, but along with you, love the elderberry wine. Very unique flavor.

 

[ffemt128]

I finally got time to rack my 27 gallons of Elderberry wine today.

 

[thecrewking]

How would you describe elderberry wine flavor? Got some in the freezer and thinking about it as my next wine

I don't have anywhere near 100 bottles of it, but along with you, love the elderberry wine. Very unique flavor.

 

[wineforfun]

How would you describe elderberry wine flavor? Got some in the freezer and thinking about it as my next wine

Wow, that is a tough one. Not sure really. Kind of a sweeter merlot maybe. It just has a very unique "twang" to it, and in a good way to me. I really like elderberry.

 

[Jericurl]

How would you describe elderberry wine flavor? Got some in the freezer and thinking about it as my next wine

Elderberry is a hard flavor to describe.

The best way for me is...It is what I thought red wine tasted like when I was a child. Fruity, rich, deep. Heavily fragrant, great mouthfeel.

I love adding elderberry to just about any kit I make or any wine or mead that I am making. It is just wonderful.

And I realize I didn't really describe elderberry to you.
I guess the closest taste for me would be a mix between grape wines and blackberry, but a richer taste.

 

[user 32114]

for being hard to describe you hit the nail on the head, I live in the Ozarks,
where I live myself and about every wine drinker was raised on elderberry, followed by Muscadine, or called from the white type muscat...
richard::

Elderberry is a hard flavor to describe.

The best way for me is...It is what I thought red wine tasted like when I was a child. Fruity, rich, deep. Heavily fragrant, great mouthfeel.

I love adding elderberry to just about any kit I make or any wine or mead that I am making. It is just wonderful.

And I realize I didn't really describe elderberry to you.
I guess the closest taste for me would be a mix between grape wines and blackberry, but a richer taste.

 

[Jericurl]

All this talk of elderberry made me want some.

We brought a bottle of our elderberry/blackberry mead over for Mother's Day.
It was a big hit.

Probably time to start thinking about making another batch.

 

[barbiek]

I'm hoping my elderberry bush does as well as my blackberry bushes are looking their loaded!! Will try to remember to take photo tomorrow

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

I think a good Temranillo comes close as any grape wine to an elderberry that has a little oak in it. WVMJ

 

[FTC Wines]

I agree with Jack, our first Temranillo is now 18 mos old. In ways it's similar to Elderberry, but the Elderberry is unique. Our Elderberry wine is made from concentrates, 80% Elderberry, 20% Cab. Most who taste it say" this is really a good Red" then add it's a little different! Roy

 

[ffemt128]

I'm thinking it's time combine the elderberry and back sweeten. I have 21 gallons of elderberry and 6 gallons of 2nd's elderberry. I'm thinking of racking the 21 gallons into a 20gallon food grade drum I have to combine and blend then back sweeten the entire batch. After that it will go back into carboys for aging and some medium French oak in some of it. Maybe this weekend.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Id suggest a 30 gallon drum for your 21 gallons of wine, we dont want to waste any elderberry wine WVMJ

 

[ffemt128]

Id suggest a 30 gallon drum for your 21 gallons of wine, we dont want to waste any elderberry wine WVMJ

I finally got around to racking and blending all the elderberry. I racked into my 32 gallon Brute then transferred back into carboys. May shoot for back sweetening this evening if time permits.